Gabe Rottman is a legislative counsel/policy advisor in the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office, focusing on the First Amendment. In that role, Rottman advocates in Congress and the federal agencies for the freedoms of speech, press, assembly and petition, including issues related to intellectual property, telecommunications regulation, media law, criminal speech restrictions and the rights of protesters. Prior to this position, he served as an attorney in private practice and as a senior writer and communications specialist for the ACLU.

Professor Stone ripping it up.
So, we should consider recent events in context. The legislation amending FISA is unwarranted, reckless and possibly unconstitutional. Nonetheless, the overall state of civil liberties in the U.S., viewed in historical…

Two charges dropped against Lt. Col. Steve Jordan after military court determines that he wasn't read his rights before being interviewed by a senior officer (to whom he allegedly lied about abuse at Abu Ghraib).
The charges against Jordan were tossed…

Adam Liptak at the Times on the Padilla verdict's legal angle.
The central charge against Mr. Padilla was that he conspired to murder, maim and kidnap people in a foreign country. The charge is a serious one, and it can carry a life sentence. But prosecutors…

What to make of this? Mr. Padilla, convicted on all counts, guilty of murder conspiracy and two other charges, based almost exclusively on a grainy reproduction of an alleged "application form" filled out in an attempt to attend an al Qaeda training…